All frequent visitors to the famous Trillium (aka the best dining spot on campus) will have been shaken, or might I say “shook,” by the recent changes made to their beloved salad bar. Until this year, all salads were crafted by the lovely Trillium staff who combined the ingredients, tossed the salad and added toppings for you, all at no extra cost. But the recent shift this semester to a self-serve salad bar has stirred up much bitterness among Cornell students.
Few, however, have considered the idea that the salad bar has taken a turn for the better. Here’s why.
1. You can control your portions (and ultimately how much you spend)
Before the ordeal, Trillium salads were set at a standard price ($8.99). This was nice because there would be no price difference even if you crammed every ingredient and topping into your bowl, allowing you to get more bang for your buck. But let’s be real – the portions they used to give us were never perfect. But now that salads go by weight, you’re able to determine for yourself how big or small you want your salad to be, as well as how much you spend. Based on your current level of hungriness, the new system allows you the freedom to tailor your meal, whether you want to create a monstrous salad or a tiny snack-sized portion. This can also help reduce food waste.
2. You can load up on the toppings you want
Back in the day when self-serve didn’t exist, you had no control over how much of each ingredient/topping you could add. Sure, you could add an extra scoop of edamame, but any more than that was no bueno. They also imposed a max of two protein choices per salad. But the new salad bar allows you to determine not only the quantity of the salad as a whole, but also the quantities of each salad component. Do you want your salad to be 90% toppings and 10% leaves? Do you want exactly three cherry tomatoes? Go ahead and be as precise as you want, because it’s totally up to you!
3. No more over- or under-dressing
After spending a hefty amount of precious BRBs, there’s no worse feeling than:
a) not being able to taste the ginger sesame dressing you’ve been craving or
b) reaching the bottom of your salad to find it drenched in a mouth-puckering pool of balsamic vinaigrette
With the new salad bar, you are the creator of your own dressing destiny.
4. It saves a lot of water
The assembly line process before wasted a ton of H2O. Each salad required the use of one pair of tongs and two plastic bowls (used to shake the salad), each of which needed to be washed. When you think about how many Cornell students get a salad, this adds up to a lot of tongs, even more bowls, and way too much fresh water. The self-serve line eliminates this entirely. Cornell is an institution dedicated to sustainability – this is another step toward that goal.
5. It also saves a lot of plastic
Salads used to be served in sealable plastic bowls, but Trillium has since caught on to Terrace’s style and adopted the paper box, which is just as effective, but much more eco-friendly. Plus, the lids on those plastic bowls were a pain to open without having spinach and romaine explode everywhere.